Daisy Benitez

Daisy is a senior consultant with EY's Climate Change and Sustainability Services group where she supports client's with their sustainability strategy, circular economy development, as well as analyzing the climate and water risk associated with their business operations. Throughout her career Daisy has centered environmental justice in all of her work and seeks opportunity to advocate for this. The Switzer Network was Daisy's first exposure to an organization solely focused on the environment and opened the doors to access to incredible mentors. Daisy serves on the Fellows Advisory Committee, and hopes to help Switzer continue to expand on its mission by increasing awareness of the organization to under-represented groups and increasing ways to support BIPOC fellows.

Daisy Benitez received a Master in Green Technologies from the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering. Through this graduate program she enhanced her knowledge of the natural environment by working to understand the complex relationship between energy production and the environment. Her ultimate goal was to support the development of technologies for safe, sustainable, and reliable energy generation while minimizing negative impacts on marginalized communities. Daisy has conducted research on the use of unit process treatment wetlands for wastewater treatment at UC Berkeley through the Reinventing the Nation's Urban Water Infrastructure (ReNUWIt) program. She has also interned at Ramboll Environ, an environmental consulting firm, where she focused on air quality permitting regulation in the city of Los Angeles. Daisy participated in the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Mickey Leland Energy Fellowship Program at Los Alamos National Laboratory where she studied the risks and feasibility of long-term geologic CO2 storage (GCS). Aside from her professional endeavors, Daisy is an active leader in the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) where she is dedicated to increasing the number of Latinx professionals in STEM fields. As a first-generation college student, Daisy feels an obligation to give back to her community by providing them with the resources necessary to not only be admitted into a four-year university but to also excel academically and professionally once admitted. She served as the Chapter President for the SHPE USC student chapter, and served as the Regional Graduate Student Representative for the entire Southern California region this year. Daisy is originally from Dallas, TX and graduated from USC with a B.S. in Environmental Engineering.